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Friday, November 4, 2011

FULL SEASON ALERT: Last Man Standing, Once Upon a Time

In very unsurprising news, hit new ABC shows Last Man Standing and Once Upon a Time have been picked up for full seasons.

Last Man Standing, which brought Tim Allen back to ABC after over a decade off, got off to a really hot start with 13.2 million viewers and a 3.6 demo. It has ebbed some since then but it has proven to be a self-starter for the night in a difficult timeslot. It seems like it needs another traditional multicamera comedy to go with it to help ABC get a comedy foothold on Tuesday. For now, it's off to a good start and quality-wise, it seems to be exactly what some people want more of on broadcast TV. Through five episodes (including two episodes as part of the one hour premiere), it has averaged 11.2 million viewers and a 3.2 demo.

The most successful new drama of the season so far, Once Upon a Time, picked up a full season after two airings. Time defied most expectations with a huge debut but then it surprised even more observers with one of the best holds of any show in its second week. While its still early, it appears that this genre show has tapped into an audience that was bigger than any expected. In a difficult timeslot, it has averaged a stellar 12.3 million viewers and a 4.0 demo (rounded up). It will be interesting to see how the next couple weeks go after the great Week 2 hold.

With this news joining the earlier full season orders for Revenge and Suburgatory as well as the cancellation of Charlie's Angels, Man Up! and Pan Am are the only two new shows with their status up in the air. Man Up! will almost certainly not get episodes beyond 13 and may not even air all 13 episodes depending on how the next couple weeks go. Pan Am was given an additional script order signaling that ABC will continue to be patient with this show, which had a great premiere followed by big drops. ABC also picked up a full season for sophomore Happy Endings, which only had 13 episodes ordered.